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Federer rolls past Berdych to reach Indian Wells semifinals

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) Roger Federer defeated Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-0 to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday, keeping alive his bid of winning an unprecedented fifth title in the desert.

Federer improved to 15-1 this year, with his only loss coming against Andreas Seppi in the third round of the Australian Open. Federer avenged that defeat in the same round at Indian Wells. He earned his first straight-set win over Berdych since 2011 in Paris and just his second 6-0 set ever in 19 career matches against the Czech.

"I'm not the kind of guy who takes great joy out of bageling opponents, to be honest," Federer said.

He needed just 68 minutes to advance to a semifinal against either third-seeded Rafael Nadal or No. 6 Milos Raonic, who met later.

"It was one of his very tough performances," Berdych said. "He was doing pretty much everything perfect."

Top-ranked Serena Williams played No. 3 seed Simona Halep and No. 18 Jelena Jankovic faced 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki in evening semifinals. Williams is trying to reach the final for the first time since 2001, when she won as a 19-year-old and was heavily booed, leading to her 14-year boycott of the tournament.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic takes on fourth-seeded Andy Murray in the other men's semifinal on Saturday.

Federer had 21 winners, equaling the number of unforced errors by Berdych. Federer won 13 of 14 points at the net, never faced a break point on his serve, and broke Berdych four times in the match, including three times in the second set.

"I was really able to utilize the court much more, play more angles, play with variation, spin and slice. I did that very well," Federer said. "Because I was serving well and moving well, so maybe there is not going to be that many chances for him on the return."

Federer served two love games in the first set, when he lost just five points on his serve.

"When you feel that he's in control right from the beginning, then of course you have to come up with your best game from the beginning of the match," Berdych said. "There is a very thin line in between that and overdoing it. Today I stepped a little bit over it."